Life

The Monday Round-Up: Frodeno in Top Form in Barcelona

Two new mountain bike stage races join the IRONMAN family, Sri Lanka welcomes its first event, race recaps, races on tap, and more from the world of IRONMAN.

Weekend at a Glance

IRONMAN Lanzarote

IRONMAN Lanzarote is always a race of suffering. Three factors made the pro field go hard at the 26th edition of the race. On the one hand, the sun brought with it extremely tough conditions for all of the 1600 athletes. On the other hand, Bart Aernouts (BEL) in the men’s competition and Lucy Charles (GBR) in women’s pushed the top pros to their limits.

In the women’s race, last year’s third-place Brit Lucy Charles never looked back. The 23-year old nailed the 6th fastest swim time overall in 47:06. She exited the water five seconds quicker than she had done at her IRONMAN Lanzarote debut in 2016 and more than five minutes faster than her compatriot Kate Comber in runner-up position. Once she was on the bike, the 2016 IRONMAN World Championship age group winner sailed away dominantly. In her first year as a professional athlete, she set a new bike course record and took a huge advantage into the marathon. France's Jeanne Collonge and 2014 champion Lucy Gossage were about 20 minutes behind the lead, with Corinne Abraham in fourth was more than 24 minutes down.

Charles managed the heat and the strong runners behind her in the marathon to clock one of the best finish times ever in Lanzarote while Abraham and Gossage rounded out a British podium thanks to the fastest marathons in the field. Abraham stormed through the run course with the best split.

Men’s champion Aernouts almost ran the fastest time, with a marathon only 49 seconds slower than Alessandro Degasperi’s (ITA). But Aernouts had already won the race on the bike. The Belgian co-favorite had a very consistent swim next to defending champion Jesse Thomas (USA) and Degasperi. This trio was more than three minutes behind the fastest swimmers, but those three seemed to know that they would meet each other later on the run. Romain Guillaume was the only one among the best swimmers, who could dominant the race for longer. The French winner of the 2014 edition really pushed his gears in the first half of the hard bike course, and he didn’t slow down when Aernouts made his pass.

Thanks to the best bike splits, Aernouts and Guillaume came off the bike together, Thomas in third was more than 7 minutes down. The American needed a little extra time in T2 because he forgot his sunglasses in the transition tent, and Aernouts dropped his teammate Guillaume early in the run and stormed away to one of the best-ever finish times in Lanzarote. Degasperi was running strong into third place and then directly into a tough battle with Thomas. The defending champ could hold the Italian off for about half of the marathon, but Thomas didn’t have his best day and finally ranked third.

IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga

Thunderstorms threatened in Chattanooga Sunday, but the weather held to allow the athletes to hit the course unencumbered. Newbie Antoine Jolicoeur Desroches (CAN) took the race to his competitors early with a big swim gap and turned it into a huge lead off of the bike with a solo effort off the front. It was all for naught though as Matt Russell was able to pull that gap back in dramatic fashion with just two miles to go. Adam Otstot crossed second and Antoine held on for third.

In the women's race, we had no surprise as our defending champion Heather Jackson (USA) got to the front early, just 10 miles in, erasing a two-minute deficit to take the lead. She continued to hammer away on the bike with Sarah True (USA), Kristen Merchant (CAN) and Jackie Hering (USA) the only women to keep within striking distance. In the end, Jackson's strength was too much for the chasers as she held even pace throughout and crossed the line with two and three minutes' margin of victory over True and Hering to defend her Chattanooga title. It marks a good track for Jackson building towards IRONMAN Boulder in just a few weeks' time.

IRONMAN 70.3 St. Polten

Nils Frommhold and Laura Philipp crossed the finish line with huge smiles, despite the poor weather at IRONMAN 70.3 St. Poelten. Frommhold was the first of three German men on the pro podium, and Philipp dominated the race with a 10-minute lead.

In the men’s race, things unfolded as expected. Andreas Boecherer, Frommhold and Maurice Clavel were among the fastest guys in the water and started battling out each other early on the bike. The three athletes, who all live in the same area in the South of Germany, broke away from the rest of the field, with only Austria’s Thomas Steger able to ride a similar pace on the wet roads. Frommhold and Boecherer, who had won in St. Poelten in the past two years, dropped Clavel early and reached T2 side by side. "I knew that the first kilometer would be decisive," explained Frommhold later why he more or less sprinted into the half marathon. Once he had opened up a small gap, he was off and away to a 2-minute lead while Clavel made up time on Boecherer especially on the last kilometers of the run to finish a minute behind the 2016 champ in third.

Philipp led women’s race from start to finish. After the swim, her advantage was only about 20 seconds, but she had no issues to pull away from her chasers on the wet bike course. She had a lead of about 5 minutes over Yvonne van Vlerken (NED) and Austria’s Lisa Huetthaler when she came off the bike, and Philipp knew about her running strength. As she did one week before in Mallorca, she ran straight to a great victory thanks to a superb split while van Vlerken took runner-up position ahead of Huetthaler.

IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona

It wasn’t really a question for the crowd at the IRONMAN 70.3 Barcelona whether Jan Frodeno, the two-time IRONMAN world champ and 2008 Olympic champion would take the win. But this was not an easy win to take for Frodeno, because the race was tough—thanks to his training buddy Nick Kastelein (AUS), who pushed really hard in each discipline, and Bertrand Billard from France who hammered early on the bike.

Spaniard Francesc Godoy managed the fastest swim in 22:47. He was only a second quicker than Frodeno, and both were sprinting at the front of a strong group out of the water. A few kilometers into the bike course, Billard attacked and moved to the front. Through half of the tough course, he had opened up a gap of a little more than 3 minutes on the top favorites. When the leader reached T2, he was 4 minutes ahead of Frodeno, it was way to less to hold one of the best runners off. After about half of the run, Frodeno made the decisive pass and ran straight to the win in front of his friend Kastelein and Russia’s Ivan Tutukin.

Emma Pallant made her way to the victory on the run course, too. On the bike, it was Catherine Jameson who stormed away like her British colleague Lucy Charles had done the day before winning the IRONMAN Lanzarote. Jameson had the best swim in 24:34 and opened up a gap of 3 minutes on the first 20 kilometers of the bike. But the longer the race was going, the smaller Jameson’s advantage seemed to be. She led women’s race into T2, but after about 5 kilometers of the run, Emma Pallant moved powerful into first place. The former track runner ran the victory home in front of another strong British athlete, Natalie Seymour, who ranked third at Pays d’Aix the week before.

Races on Tap

IRONMAN South American Championship, Brazil

Follow the IRONMAN Brazil pro race action here on IRONMAN.com and on Twitter at @IRONMANLive. Join the conversation using the hashtag #IMBrazil / #IMSAChamps for both Twitter and Instagram.

Follow your age group athlete's progress throughout the race on the IRONMAN Athlete Tracker.

Race start time: Saturday: 6:45 a.m. BRT

Sri Lanka Welcomes First IRONMAN Event

IRONMAN 70.3 Colombo was announced last week. The capital city of Sri Lanka, Colombo embodies the country’s fascinating history and cosmopolitan character through its heritage, architecture, colonial buildings and historic landmarks with stunning high-rises and abundant shopping malls.

The event will take place in the heart of Sri Lanka’s capital city, beginning at the renowned Galle Face Green park with a one-loop 1.9-km swim through the warm and clear waters of the Indian Ocean. The athletes will then progress to a well-paved, flat and fast three-loop 90-km bike course that will travel through Colombo’s City Centre and past the Old Parliament Building and the Port of Colombo, a historical harbour that stood as the center of ancient trading routes. The athletes will then run 21.1-km along the coastline with the unique opportunity to run on the historic Harbour Breakwater enjoying picturesque views of the Indian Ocean before returning back to Galle Face Green park.

General registration for IRONMAN 70.3 Colombo, will open on Thursday 8 June, 2017, at www.ironman.com/colombo70.3. Athlete inquiries may be directed to .

Two New Mountain Bike Stage Races Join IRONMAN

Two iconic mountain bike stage events from Zubini Marketing & Management Pty Ltd. joined the IRONMAN race portfolio last week: The Cape to Cape MTB in Western Australia and the Port to Port MTB, in Newcastle, Australia.

These two events join IRONMAN’s portfolio of events, which also includes mountain bike races in New Zealand, The Motatapu and the multi-stage The Pioneer, the RRR Mountain Bike Challenge in Cairns, and the Absa Cape Epic in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Held in the stunning Margaret River region of Western Australia since 2008, the Cape to Cape MTB will celebrate 10 years in October, and with more than 2,000 expected competitors is widely recognized as Australasia’s biggest MTB multi-stage endurance race. Port to Port is held annually every May in the idyllic Nelson Bay Marina, Hunter Valley and Newcastle region of New South Wales, challenging athletes with four days of sandy tracks, fire trails, hill climbs, fast single tracks and steep descents. This year’s event will take place at the end of this month from May 25-28.

IRONMAN Renews Multi-Year Agreement with ACTIVE Network

ACTIVE Network, the premier global marketplace for activities and events and an industry-leading provider of intelligence solutions, and IRONMAN, a Wanda Sports Holdings company, announced today they have signed an expanded, multi-year agreement. IRONMAN operates a global portfolio of events that includes the IRONMANTriathlon Series, the IRONMAN 70.3 Triathlon Series, and IRONKIDS, as well as iconic cycling, mountain biking, running, and multi-sport events such as the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon and Velothon Series. The renewed relationship will further expand the utilization of ACTIVE’s new and enhanced technologies to accelerate and amplify IRONMAN’s global growth strategy.

"For nearly two decades, ACTIVE Network’s technologies have helped ignite the global growth and success of the IRONMAN events series, and ACTIVE has served as a driving force behind the sport of triathlon as a whole," said Shane Facteau, chief operating officer for IRONMAN. "Particularly over the last few years, we’ve recognized ACTIVE’s commitment in delivering technologies and services that address a broad range of engagement, operational, and registration functions for our events. That investment is paying off, as ACTIVE continues to deliver what we believe is the industry’s most innovative, stable, secure, and scalable technology platform."

ACTIVE’s centralized event technology management platform, ACTIVEWorks® Endurance, will enable IRONMAN to digitally manage registrations and on-site check-ins through a variety of convenient devices and applications. This technology also enables IRONMAN to more effectively and efficiently manage its staff and volunteers. As part of the new agreement, ACTIVE Network will enhance its ACTIVE On-Site™ mobile application to enable waiver signature capture and authentication, allowing IRONMAN to complete event participation waivers on-site through digital "finger-based" signature authentication.

"Since 1999, ACTIVE’s technology has powered the unprecedented global growth of IRONMAN events, initially providing high-volume online registration. Today, our vastly expanded suite of products utilized by IRONMAN has enabled this renowned event series provider to identify new markets, optimize its registration pricing model, and increase engagement among its loyal participants," said Sam Renouf, general manager for sports at ACTIVE Network. "Although we started together with a focus on North American events, IRONMAN has made phenomenal progress in expanding its brand overseas, and in 2017, ACTIVE will support IRONMAN across 260 events, 45 countries, 13 currencies, and 12 payment types. We are thrilled and honored to support IRONMAN in its next chapter of innovation and growth."